Democratic Rep. Steve Cohen brings KFC bucket at hearing to mock attorney general: "The message is Bill Barr is a chicken"
The Democratic Representative of Tennessee, Steve Cohen, brought a bucket of Kentucky Fried Chicken and a ceramic chicken statue to a House Judiciary Committee hearing on Thursday after Attorney General William Barr refused to testify before the committee.
Cohen, through his stunt, suggested that Barr is too chicken to testify in front of the committee on his summary of Special Counsel Robert Muller's report and his resulting decision of absolving the president of any obstruction of justice.
As Cohen took the bucket in the House, Rep. Debbie Mucarsel-Powell, D-Fla., also grabbed a piece of chicken and ate it on the dais.
Cohen, in an interview with MSNBC, said: "The message is Bill Barr is a chicken." While talking to the reporters outside the hearing room, he said: "Chicken Barr should have shown up today and answered questions."
The Congressman further said: "This man was picked to be Roy Cohn and to be Donald Trump’s fixer. The Black Sox look clean compared to this team. It is a sad day in America."
Although Barr skipped on testifying, the committee moved forward with the hearing on Thursday morning. Reports state that the committee's Democratic leadership and Barr did not agree over the formatting of the hearing. The point of contention was whether Barr could be questioned by staff in addition to the lawmakers. Barr had earlier made clear that he would only answer questions by members of the House of Representatives.
There is speculation that the House Judiciary Chairman Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y, could subpoena the attorney general into testifying. The chairman later on Thursday said that he will move to hold Barr in contempt "if he stalls or fails to negotiate in good faith."
He also added during the hearing that the Department of Justice had written to the committee, saying it would ignore a subpoena for the release of the full Mueller report.